Comic actor Martin Short, creator of Ed Grimley and Jiminy Glick, and one of the most successful alums of "Saturday Night Live" and "SCTV," will perform an evening of comedy at the Pabst Theater Jan. 18 for the third annual Laugh It Up Milwaukee fundraiser.

Hollywood actress Jada Pinkett Smith — wife to Will Smith, and mother to Jaden and Willow — will take on the role of rock frontwoman Nov. 11 at Shank Hall with her metal band Wicked Wisdom. The 42-year-old metal fan formed the band in 2002, performing as an opener for a Britney Spears tour in 2004 and at Ozzfest in 2005.

Start the first full week of the Milwaukee Film Festival with a daytime screening of "Band of Sisters," a documentary that Journal Sentinel faith and spirituality reporter Annysa Johnson says offers a different view of nuns than the cloistered-women-in-black-habits stereotype.

Johnson says: "The documentary by Mary Fishman looks at the work of Catholic women religious in the decades since Vatican II catapulted the church into the modern world. | Sept. 30, 2013»Read Full Blog Post